As flooring dealers roll into a new year rife with uncertainty, flooring manufacturers like Mohawk are focused on ensuring their aligned dealers have the tools and resources needed to streamline their operations to boost sales and decrease costs. Cyncly has partnered with Mohawk to help dealers achieve those goals. During the Mohawk Edge Summit 2025, Dave Geipel, vice president digital strategy with Cyncly Flooring, presented on the importance of measurable digital marketing strategies and creating connected customer experiences across all touchpoints. 

According to Geipel, dealers need to drill down on their customer focus to create loyalty. This means having a keen understanding of the customer shopping journey from awareness to post-purchase and integrating the online and in-store experiences (if you haven’t already). He points out that retailers, in the past, have focused on their reputation and service. Instead, Geipel encourages retailers to look at the buying process through the eyes of the consumer in a digital age.  

“Digital allows you to go everywhere and anywhere to find those customers today,” Geipel said. “Everyone is on their mobile devices.” 

Go with Google 

Integrated marketing is the key to increasing awareness. Having a Google presence is crucial, and Cyncly is in the top 3% of all advertisers, marketers, brands and companies that work with Google, according to Geipel. Specifically, he points to Google Shopping that is now enhanced through a new version of AI. Google Shopping helps consumers find products from online stores, compare prices and make purchases. Now, with the addition of the new AI feature, consumers are shown more relevant products to help speed up and simplify the shopping experience.  

“Be in your Google My Business profile twice a month,” Geipel said. “You want to have at least 40 plus reviews. They don't all have to be great reviews, but you want to get to a point where they are 4.3 and above.”  

He recommends encouraging your loyal customers to submit reviews. In terms of projects that suffered major setbacks, own up to those issues and rectify them, he said. “Don’t be fearful of that review. Let that help drive your business to excellence.” 

Seek Out Social  

Social media continues to be a major component of research marketing. Social media with video content outperforms static posts, said Geipel. Cyncly has the ability to help with the video creation process to build awareness surrounding your brand. He suggests focusing on creating in-store content, emphasizing the fact that you are local.  

Get Grounded with Geofencing 

Cyncly is now offering clients an even more in-depth geofencing option called addressable geofencing. This allows them to locate potential customers in specific neighborhoods along with targeting competitor locations.  

“We go after all your competitors, and we send [the customers] over to you,” said Geipel. “We find ways to get advertisements [to them] when they walk into these different stores, even into the departments of these stores and get them over to you.”

Behavioral targeting is another way to reach customers. Cyncly has the ability to search competitor sites such as Home Depot for potential customers, according to Geipel.  

“We can target those customers who are on Home Depot in their app, who are searching for flooring,” he said. “Why? Because Home Depot makes your information available to third parties. We tap into those third parties. We find those customers, and guess what, your ads now go in front of those Home Depot flooring shoppers. We can add in other layers of demographic information to be able to further target those customers that you want.” 

Implement and Integrate 

Implement integrated promotions across all channels. Geipel cites that only 14% of companies do fully integrated campaigns. What does that mean exactly? Rather than simply place a promo banner on your website, it means ensuring that your Google accounts and socials are in sync with your in-store showroom promos. Additionally, the email blasts that go to your customers should also be populated with the exact same promo materials. This is crucial to driving traffic to a retailer's store.  

“Once you have their email address and they say, ‘Yes, I would like to get promotional emails,’ we now can continue to market to them,” he said. Additionally, Geipel points out that Cyncly sends emails about the services you offer and the benefits to doing business with you to those who have opted in to receive promotional materials.  

Sample Solution 

Cyncly has partnered with Mohawk to launch a sample solution that simplifies the previous sample ordering process which consisted of visiting one of Mohawk’s brand websites and ordering a sample. Customers can now order samples straight from the dealer’s website, providing the dealer with a lead via the checkout system.  

“You can go to our websites like Mohawkflooring.com and order a sample of our products and get it shipped to your house,” said Todd Skidmore, senior director, digital marketing, eCommerce and analytics, Mohawk. “What we've done is extend that same capability to anybody with an Omnify website.”

This solution keeps the customer on the dealer’s website rather than going elsewhere to source a sample and potentially losing the opportunity to secure a new client.  

“A lead comes in, giving you a new customer to follow up on; you schedule an in-home measurement or an in-store appointment where you take along a range of flooring samples; you show the samples, do a measurement, give a quote and close the business,” according to Geipel.  

Another sample-driven lead generation tool that is now being offered through Cyncly is Samplesapp. Preloaded sample displays that match those in a dealer's showroom from many different flooring manufacturers, including Mohawk, are stored within the Samplesapp platform.  

A customer can scan a QR code or snap a photo of a product on display in a showroom, allowing them to checkout that sample and take it home. The lead is captured and sent straight to the dealer's ERP.  

Monitor Marketing  

Geipel encourages retailers to monitor and better understand their Return on Ad Spend (ROAS). He recommends spending 4% to 8% of the total budget on marketing.  

Even with the looming threat of a dip in the economy, “Consumers are still in the market, and if you're no longer in front of them, then your business will continue to follow that,” he said.

Utilizing marketing methods that offer metrics allowing retailers to see the ROAS is key. The goal is to hit 10 to 11 times the ROAS, according to Geipel.